Looking for a cheaper solution on Graphics. External?

I've been looking at this Village Instruments : Store

And, I only need the card at home as I don't play games too much outside of my home. So is it possible to get an external video card working with the R3? I'm aware that the R3 doesn't have an express card slot.....

So is there a way

 

No, upgrade your GPU to a 580m or 6990m. The 580m is the same as a downclocked 560 Ti where as the 6990m is the same as a downclocked 6870. Or if you are so willing to tether something to your laptop, get a PS3 or 360 and use the HDMI in.

 

Oh bummer. The reason why I'm hesitating to upgrade to either of those cards is because of the price.....

This dock + a decent card would probably only cost me $500-$600

 

Yeah well, the M17x R3 does without the Expresscard

 

There are some solutions that can connect via ribbon cable at 1-2x. You can possibly use the wifi or WiHD slot instead of the main one used for graphics card. It would be slower than a 580m due to lack of bandwidth. Most of these solutions are designed for laptops without PCIe and the m17x has PCIe.

 

Ah well then, thanks for the help. Time for my wallet to burst out in tears for the 580m.... heh.

 

from everything I've read about these types of external graphics card interfaces, they are very bandwidth starved.

The expresscard interface provides only 2.5Gbit/sec bandwidth as opposed to the internal PCI-E which is 80Gbit/sec. So you're effectively feeding that external video card though a straw.

The point is that in comparison to something like integrated graphics pre-sandy bridge, that was an interesting option, but compared to what you can already get internally on something like an m17x, it's considerably worse.

edit:

Also, an upgrade card isn't as bad as you might think.... this is a pretty old thread (last march) but in it the guy notes that dell would sell him a 6970 for ~$400. http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/563602-buy-6970m-separate.html I'd imagine you can get a 6990 for <$500.

 

Just put a badder card in it and sell the 460 to help cover the cost. You'll regret the external. A 6990M is ~$480, and you won't have to carry that external around.

 

Seconded.

10char

 

Alrighty thanks guys! Hopefully I won't destroy my computer when I install it

 

You might also want to wait for the 7xxx serie before upgrading.
There should be a pretty huge leap from 6xxx to 7xxx because of the 22nm production and XDR2 ram.

 

28nm not 22. gpus tend to be on the half nodes.

 

Even if you could use that with the R3, performance would be awful. The external gpu would be limited to a 1x PCI-e connection. Such low bandwidth would bottleneck the card significantly and performance would be much worse than your current dedicated gpu inside the laptop.

 

Not only that...but the cost would be crazy.

You would need to get the idock "plus" that includes 2 x 6 pin connectors for $279 plus tax and shipping

Then you would have to get a decent vid card ... say around $300.

So it isn't a cheap investment.